Blue Buffalo Natural Veterinary Diet + Urinary Care Grain-Free Dog Food
The Blue Buffalo Natural Veterinary Diet + Urinary Care Grain Free Dog Food certainly ticks multiple boxes! If your dog needs a calorie-controlled diet, but you also need to take care of their urinary health, then this is a good choice. It’s also grain-free but includes healthy fiber from a blend of fruits and vegetables, which will help your dog feel fuller for longer.
The mineral levels within this wet food are carefully controlled, making sure that your dog’s urinary health is supported at all times. It also has a high moisture content of 78%, thanks to the addition of chicken broth. This moisture helps keep your dog hydrated and dilutes their urine to reduce the chances of crystals forming.Pros
Cons
Canine Caviar Limited Ingredient Dog Food — Premium Choice
As our Premium Choice, we selected the Canine Caviar Limited Ingredient Dog Food. This dry dog food provides complete and balanced nutrition for dogs of all ages. It also uses a limited-ingredient list, which is a big plus if your pup suffers from allergies and you need to keep a close eye on the foods they eat.
This contains alfalfa, which is designed to raise the pH level of your dog’s system into an alkaline range. It also includes a carefully curated blend of other ingredients, including flaxseeds and coconut oil. It is quite high in calories, at 599 kcal/cup, so it may not be the best choice for a dog that needs to lose weight!Pros
Cons
“In practical terms, this means that eating too much of meats, fats and sugars compared to plant foods and whole grain foods with their alkaline, neutralizing nutrients can create an acidic pH body environment,” she explains. “And this acidic environment can cause inflammation and allow diseases to thrive.”
One of our customers recently told us how her dog’s urinary crystal issue cleared up after transitioning from a very high protein food to CARNA4. Delighted with the results, she wanted to know exactly “what” urine pH level CARNA4 produced.
The answer is not a definitive number but speaks more to the holistic way a dog’s body functions, similar to humans. A pH level is defined as the concentration of Hydrogen ions or, more simply, the measure of acidity or alkalinity in the body. It is influenced by multiple factors. “It’s the sum of all the body’s metabolic processes, from digestion to elimination, that work together to determine the pH, not just the dog’s food input,” says Maria. “You need to consider the pH of both digested and absorbed food and drink, known as ash.”
Dr. Morton goes further to outline the impact of various ingredients. “A diet containing high levels of poor quality ingredients, such as salt, protein, lactose, sucrose, fructose and magnesium, elevates and creates an unbalanced concentration of calcium in a dog’s urine. A low level or poor source of phosphorus also raises the calcium concentration – creating oxalate crystals and potentially kidney stones.”
For answers, we consulted Dr. Scott Morton, President, Mortec Scientific Inc. (the independent research and laboratory testing firm that specializes in pet food, consumer food and natural health products and oversees CARNA4’s quality), as well as Maria Ringo, a classical, practising homeopath and one of our co-founders.
Homemade Dog Food for Urinary Tract Health Recipe
Choosing the best food for our beloved dogs can sometimes feel like mission impossible. Whether you go for grain-free, limited-ingredient, freeze-dried, or canned, the options are endless. If your dog had had urinary tract infections, or UTIs, in the past, then the choice of food is even more important.
Certain dog foods can exacerbate the conditions needed for a UTI to form, by containing high levels of minerals that can form crystals and stones in your dog’s urine. To prevent this, choosing a dog food that’s designed to promote the optimum pH balance of your dog’s urine is key. But where do you start?
Finding the best dog food to promote a healthy pH balance can be a challenge, but our detailed reviews are designed to help you figure out which one will be the best choice for your dog.